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Maezawa did a similar giveaway in January 2019, and broke a record for the most retweets on Twitter, when he pledged to give away $925,000 (100 million yen) to 100 randomly-selected users who shared his tweet.

He explained in a YouTube video that one of his \"biggest regrets\" was not explaining his reasoning for the contest last year, which was 10 times smaller than 2020's giveaway.

\"So to put it simply, the purpose of this giveaway is to conduct a social experiment,\" Maezawa said in the video. \"This social experiment is to see whether the 1 million yen that they receive will give them a chance to be happier.\"

I have added English subtitles to my YouTube video that explains about my 1 billion yen giveaway. I hope you can watch this and understand the real reason why I am doing this giveaway. https://t.co/kBgwwmJoaP pic.twitter.com/B8D8BM0WIO

— Yusaku Maezawa (MZ) 前澤友作 (@yousuck2020) January 10, 2020

He added that he wants to hear how the 1 million yen will affect people's day to day lives, saying that last year he didn't get a chance to communicate with the winners, but he hopes to keep in touch this time and hear feedback.

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